• TCU. Everyone knows TCU is going to miss its second round NFL draft pick Andy Dalton, but the Horned Frogs expected his backup, Casey Paschall, to stick around this year.

Frog Nation received a major scare when sore-shouldered Paschall underwent an MRI. TCU coach Gary Patterson reported “Nothing serious” was found and Paschall might return to practice soon.

• New Mexico. Lobos coach Mike Locksley isn’t giving opening day foe Steve Fairchild any hints about the identity of New Mexico’s quarterback.“Both quarterbacks (junior B.R. Holbrook and sophomore Tarean Austin) have impressed me with their grasp of our system and what we want them to do. They are both executing at a high level,: Locksley told the school web site. “What has impressed me with B.R. is I see no ill effects on the type of surgery (knee) he had in the off-season. He is moving and running well.”

TCU quarterback Andy Dalton, not only studied enough film to know every seam in Wisconsin’s vaunted defense, he also knew his political terminology. That’s more than can be said for the veteran ESPN crew announcing the game.

During all the Rose Bowl interviews, the big redhead spoke of TCU and all the “non-AQ” schools excluded from automatic qualifying conferences.

To the Rose Bowl announcing crew of Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit, they were just “little guys.” I didn’t count but it sure seemed there were more mention of “little guys” than crediting the Mountain West Conference. It set back political correctness decades to before the dreaded “non-BCS” tag.

If Gary Patterson wants another coach of the year trophy for his vast hardware collection, he’ll have to pick it up in the Big East.

The man who deserved the Mountain West coach of the year award; San Diego State’s Brady Hoke won it Tuesday. All he did was take a program of perpetual underachievers, add a running game and very nearly knocked off the Big East’s newest darling a few weeks ago.

I saw in the San Diego Union-Tribune online edition that San Diego State is looking into a retention package to keep Hoke from the inevitable suitors.

Without Utah and BYU around as well as TCU in its final MWC season, facing life after quarterback Andy Dalton, look for San Diego State to figure prominently in preseason prognostications with newcomer Boise State. There is one caveat, the Aztecs hope quarterback Ryan Lindley returns for his senior season.

There weren’t too many surprises on the annual awards list although I thought AFA deserved far more than one pick in Reggie Rembert.

Is it just me or does anyone else see the irony in a conference derisively called the Big Least raiding a conference deemed unworthy of a BCS automatic qualifying bid?

I forgot, it’s not just about a BCS bid. It’s about playing for the national championship. When there are three unbeaten teams and no playoff format, the third team is justifiably going to squawk regardless of conference. But if TCU came out of the Big East 12-0, the stock wouldn’t be any higher than as an MWC team.

There are four teams combined from the MWC and WAC ranked ahead of the Big East’s top entry, No. 24 West Virginia.

There was a time when a Max Hall of BYU or Andy Dalton of TCU would monopolize the Mountain West offensive player of the week awards.

This season, the honor should have been renamed best game by a CSU opponent. Starting with the 49-27 loss to Air Force Oct. 9, at least one member of the opposing team earned a player of the week honor when CSU lost. There were five opposing winners over the final two weeks of CSU’s disastrous 0-9, 2-6 season.

It reached the point where I facetiously asked MWC associate commissioner Javon Hedlund if BYU’s punter would get the special teams honor. He had a perfect day, never leaving the sidelines to punt.

It’s more than just coincidence. Over the last two weeks, BYU wide receiver Luke Ashworth and Wyoming running back Alvester Alexander, both MWC offensive players of the week in their games against the Rams, combined for nine touchdowns.

Never mind the usual hype of the year/decade/century/millennium. Saturday’s TCU-Utah game matching Mountain West unbeatens is bigger than that.

ESPN GameDay will be in Salt Lake City, making the big event simply huge — and then some.

It is so big, make that enormous, that after the showdown between TCU and Utah (third and fifth in the BCS standings), these teams will never see each other again in a regular season league contest.

“It’s too bad it’s all going to be over here,” said TCU coach Gary Patterson of Utah’s departure to the Pac-12. “This is going to be a great Saturday it’s what football is all about.”

The implications are mind-boggling. If the winner remains unbeaten and ranks in the final BCS standings ahead of Boise State and if Oregon moves on to the national championship game, then Saturday’s MWC winner stands a good chance of landing in the Rose Bowl. That’s not bad for a league which originally sent its champ to the Liberty Bowl.

If the stars really align and the winner inches up into the BCS top two and the national championship game, someone should have the cardiac unit ready to revive MWC commissioner Craig Thompson.

“You have to win this ball game before you can think about (the BCS implications)” Patterson said. “If you don’t win this ball game, that part’s out.”

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, sticking to his vow of not discussing the PAC-12 move until this season is over, didn’t mention any nostalgia. He just talked about how many players on both sides had been in the series since the 2008 game. Unless one unwinds early on turnovers like the Utes uncharacteristically did a year ago in the 55-28 lost in Fort Worth, Whittingham expects the game to hinge on just a few key plays.

There are two key differences. The game is at Rice-Eccles Stadium. TCU’s starting quarterback Andy Dalton is a seasoned senior. Utah’s Jordan Wynn is a sophomore who had just moved into the starting lineup when the teams met a year ago.

The other coaches stayed away from the handicapping game.

“They’re both very, very good,” said AFA coach Troy Calhoun. “Both have guys on those respective units that are going to play beyond college.”

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.